NEW court reforms intended to bring about speedier and more effective justice are not being used as much as had been expected, a senior lawyer said yesterday.

Statistics on the impact of new summary justice legislation were made public by Frank Mulholland, Solicitor General for Scotland.

However he said "uninformed criticism and comment" by some lawyers and MSPs risked damaging public confidence. Legislation passed last year was meant to make the justice system speedier by extending the use of "direct measures" like fiscal fines, or making compensation payments.

Mr Mulholland dismissed claims that summary court prosecutions had been reduced by up to 75 per cent and insisted since the reforms were introduced there had been a fall in prosecutions of 13 per cent.